Restaurant notes: Kevin Sbraga's restaurant - unveiled
He's taking the corner space at 440 S. Broad St.
Restaurant followers have been a-twitter for months about this one:
Where will Top Chef season 7 winner Kevin Sbraga open his restaurant?
While many wags were fixated on North Broad Street, Sbraga has gone the other way.
The upscale casual Sbraga is pegged for this fall at 440 S. Broad St., in the Symphony House space on the corner of Broad and Pine Streets that last housed Chew Man Chu. The restaurant will seat 65.
"I call it a personal rendition of American food," says Sbraga, who lives in the Willingboro house in which he grew up. "I learned during Top Chef to express myself through food. And it was the finale where I learned to cook from my heart and soul."
The format is still being refined, but he is leaning toward a four-course prix fixe menu for $45. He plans to offer a la carte dining at the bar.
Sbraga, a graduate of Johnson & Wales' College of Culinary Arts, has worked in top area kitchens including Rat's Restaurant at the Grounds for Sculpture, Amada, Tinto and the Ritz Carlton Philadelphia.
And he has a secret weapon in the pastry department: His wife, Jesmary, who worked at Le Bec-Fin and Brasserie Perrier and is a baking instructor, will develop Sbraga's pastry program.